DODGERS: Kershaw deserved an All-Star nod

LOS ANGELES – Other than the whole thing oddly determining home-field advantage for the World Series and the archaic requirement that one player from each team be chosen, Major League Baseball does not have many express criteria for All-Star candidacy.

Nowhere is it written that only the first half of each season is to be considered when voting, or that relievers must be included at the expense of starting pitchers because they’re better suited to the one-inning stints the game requires.

In the absence of such guidelines, it makes the most sense to operate as though the 68 best players, plus replacements, should be part of the game, with some sort of extra allowance for added entertainment value. And, in the absence of an inarguable way to determine who’s best, it makes the most sense to judge production: Who’s been the most valuable?

Consider the case of Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers’ ace, one of the more compelling watches in baseball and the reigning MVP of the National League, who finished outside the top five among NL starting pitchers on player ballots submitted last week.

Who in this world actually thinks there are 68 major leaguers more valuable than Kershaw? No one, I hope. Anyone who does is hopelessly wrong.

Yes, Kershaw’s 3.08 ERA entering Wednesday’s game was worse than any of the other starting pitchers who made the NL squad, save for Madison Bumgarner, an understandable choice from the team’s manager, one Bruce Bochy. It seems won-loss records are now being safely disregarded, but ERA is not the only remaining statistic that matters, no matter how much weight the players place on it.

Kershaw took over the major league lead for strikeouts in Wednesday’s second inning. He tied Max Scherzer for the NL lead in innings pitched after seven. Those unadvanced metrics should matter, too.

A few things have become clear in recent years: Collectively, the players are worse at voting than fans, as wonderfully demonstrated by the Cubs’ Bryan LaHair. In 2012, players selected LaHair on the strength of a hot first half, which had been preceded by precisely zero major-league success. Then 29, the journeyman logged a total of 110 more major-league at-bats before washing out of the majors; he no longer plays professionally.

Sometimes it seems as though the baseball world must decide between taking the annual All-Star Game incredibly seriously or making a mockery of it. Some middle ground would be nice. It is intended to entertain.

Here follows, in alphabetical order, a rundown of the other Dodgers and Angels who had All-Star cases, whether they made it or not.

• Yasmani Grandal, Dodgers: Grandal certainly deserved his All-Star nod. He has been the National League’s best offensive catcher, a bit in front of San Francisco’s Buster Posey, but Posey will start – and should – because of his defensive prowess.

• Zack Greinke, Dodgers: Greinke likely will lose out to Scherzer in earning the start, but there was never a doubt that he would get this honor this year, and never a doubt that he deserved it. He hasn’t given up a run in four weeks. He hasn’t allowed more than eight runs in a month this season.

• Joc Pederson, Dodgers: While Pederson is in rarely chartered territory with 100-plus strikeouts, he’s in that same area with his walk rate, power from an up-the-middle position, and defensive demonstrations, especially for a rookie. Those are all good things.

• Albert Pujols, Angels: A month ago, in the midst of his June surge, it was hard to foresee a spot opening for Pujols at a perennially crowded position – especially a starting spot. Home runs have a way of creating space.

• Hector Santiago, Angels: It’s funny that Santiago didn’t get in, not because his credentials demand it, but because based on how players voted in most other cases, you’d expect that he would have. At 2.40, he owns the fourth-best ERA among AL starting pitchers. The three pitchers in front of him and two of the three directly behind him made it.

• Huston Street, Angels: It’s difficult to feel passionately that Street should or should not have made it. He’s tied for second in the league in saves, and he carried a perfectly pleasant 2.34 ERA into Wednesday’s play. He would’ve been a better choice than the Royals’ Kelvin Herrera, probably, but so would have several other pitchers. Either way, it would’ve been defensible, and that’s all there really is to say about that.

• Justin Turner, Dodgers: I wonder, genuinely, if logistics cost Turner an All-Star bid. Entering play Wednesday, he was about 30 plate appearances short of the arbitrary minimum league rules set for a player to qualify for the batting title. The real-world application of that comes in sorting statistics; it was easy to miss Turner entirely when examining the list of leaders. But because he’s been so good in his limited time, he’s provided more overall value than many players who’ve batted 100 more times than him. He should be going to Cincinnati.

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